Severed Souls

19

Everest's POV:

"What if I don't fucking want to be with you?!" I growl, watching Matias' eyes widen and there's a lot of pain and fear in then. My wolf is screeching at me, using every curse word in the book he knows how to use.

Henry rolls his eyes. "Goddess, I'm going to leave now, you two need to talk." He gives me a thumbs up as he leaves the room with his glass of wine.

"You don't want to be with me?" Matias asks, and he sounds so broken that it makes my wolf whimper and try to get to the forefront of my mind. "I mean, I don't know why I thought you would actually want me... I gave you away to the man who rejected you, I never told you how much I care, I never-"

Oh, goddess, this is getting depressing.

I grab Matias' shoulders and kiss him firmly, wrapping my arms over his shoulders and intertwining my hands behind his neck,

"You talk too much sometimes," I whisper when I've parted our lips and pressed myself against him so he has no choice but to hug me. "I'm pissed off that you sent me away, but I know why, and I'm going to hold onto it for a little bit, but I want to be with you."

Matias' gets a lot less tense in seconds, but he's still holding me right up against him. "You fucking scared me, Everest."

"Yeah, well you sent me back to America. We're not close to even, mate."

Matias lets out a low rumble from his chest. "It's pretty hot when you call me that."

"I'm probably the most attractive person you'll ever meet," I quip, resting my cheek on his chest. "I really thought you gave me up because you didn't want me..."

"I wanted you safe and away from my parents. Convincing Henry to align with us and then come take you was the only quick that I could think of, and while I wanted you the whole time, I would rather lose you and have you be safe than be selfish and put you in potential danger," Matias says, running his fingers through my hair before he takes his phone from his pocket. "Come on, we had better get back to the party... I have a meeting soon."

I want to hold his hand, but that's not the best decision for now. For now, we need to act like nothing's going on between us or others will be suspicious, so I go find Henry.

Thankfully, we discussed this and he wraps his arm around my shoulder to subtly scent me so I don't smell like Matias.

"Talk it out?" he asks me softly. "You threw that poor guy for a loop at the start there."

I shrug. "He sent me away, he deserved to feel some brief panic."

"You made our mate panic..." my wolf grumbles in my mind. "I won't forgive you for that."

"We got him back, didn't we? I just wanted to make him sweat, and you weren't even here at the forefront when he sent us away," I respond. "Maybe we'll let him make us sweat in a good way if you back off."

My wolf chirps and falls silent immediately after I suggest that.

"That was kind of fucked up," Henry says, looking over at Matias who is glaring daggers at him.

Even though Matias knows the plan, it's clear the mate bond is causing him to get even angrier. He knows we can't just raise suspicion by me suddenly being all over him. Of course, that's all I want to do right now, but we have to wait until this vote passes.

A tall man with honey brown eyes approaches us, holding out his hand to me. "You must be Everest."

"Yes, but I do not think we have met," I respond, shaking his hand and watching Henry also shake his hand and introduce himself.